The Philippine Embassy in Ottawa received the visiting delegation comprising the 2015 Outbound Trade Mission led by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines in Ottawa on 19 October 2015. In a collective effort at "Connecting Philippine companies to Canada," a business workshop was conducted at the Philippine Embassy hall where business-to-business meetings were also undertaken. The delegation also attended the 2015 Government Technology Exhibition and Conference in Ottawa, showcasing technologies and services for public sector service delivery in Canada for other possible networking opportunities.
In her welcome remarks, H.E. Ambassador Petronila P. Garcia noted the clear signs that Canada wants to engage the Philippines. She recalled in the past year alone, several significant developments have taken place - including the designation of the Philippines as a Country of Focus for development cooperation, as a priority emerging market under the Global Markets Access Plan (GMAP) of Canada, and extended privileges of Philippine exporters to bring in their goods into Canada at reduced tariffs under the General Preferential Tariff (GPT) program.
In a significant development during the visit of H.E. President Benigno S. Aquino III to Canada in May this year, the President witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Intent to explore the possibility of a bilateral free trade agreement between our two countries.
Ambassador Garcia also noted the mission of the Trade Facilitation Office Canada to meet with Philippine exporters to facilitate entry programs into the Canadian consumer market this month.
The Ambassador is pleased to see that both sides want to increase our commercial transactions, by way of increased two-way trade and investment. Two-way trade has been stable, and growing at an average of 10% the past five years. Trade levels are at $1.8 billion, representing 2% of global trade for both the Philippines and Canada.
The Ambassador drew attention to the close people to people linkages between the two countries. The 700,000-strong Filipinos in Canada now comprise the third largest visible minority in this country and have become a viable large scale ethnic consumer market in themselves. The Ambassador welcomed the increased activities and engagements among the various business groups in both the Philippines and Canada.
Ambassador Garcia also expressed her appreciation to the various business associations and enablers of global commerce and trade from Ottawa for taking the time to be amongst the members of the visiting delegation, and for sharing insights and providing information how enterprises from both the Philippines and Canada can work together for mutual benefit.
The visiting delegation was led by Cora Dela Cruz, Executive Director of CanCham Philippines. Members of the delegation include top officials from the ABI Group, the Asia Technology School of the Arts, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Engelwood Hospital, RCH Information Technology, SLID Netsystems, Filipino Human Hair Processing and Development Corporation, Wholesome Foods and the Zamoboanga City Economic Zone Authority and Freeport.
Various business groups and facilitators in Ottawa also conducted presentations including the Trade Facilitation Office Canada, Export Development Canada, and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.
The Philippines is among Asia's fastest growing economies. In the past five years, it has received numerous credit upgrades from various investment ratings organizations, and has made significant improvements in its global competitiveness rankings. As a major manufacturing hub and host of freeports, its major export products include electronics, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil and fruits. It has become a leading global business process outsourcing center in voice and other-non voice information-technology services.
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